In various manufacturing processes, fragile parts must be handled on a relatively high-speed basis. A typical manufacturing process would include one in which semiconductor parts are handled. In one application, there is a piece of adhesive film with a plurality of the parts mounted spaced apart on the adhesive surface. The parts must be individually demounted, or stripped, from the film for further processing, testing and packaging without damaging them.
A typical example is the removal of semiconductor laser parts, in the form of bars, from an adhesive film. Such parts are very fragile and are often damaged when removed from the adhesive film using manual and various type of automated handling techniques. One practice employed in removing such parts from an adhesive film employs the use of a needle to push up on the lower surface of the film at a single contact point to separate the part from the adhesive on the upper surface of the film. A vacuum tool applied to the part then strips the portion of the part not separated from the adhesive by the push of the needle away from the adhesive. This process must be carefully adjusted in order to be able to repeat the removal of the parts without damaging them by the needle impact.
In one approach, an adhesive film holding the parts is placed on a static elevator and a vacuum force is applied to the parts so as to directly remove them from the film. This other technique has been successful with a vinyl film which has a relatively low coefficient of adhesion. While the process described in that application reduces the possibility of damaging the parts, there is a drawback n that process in that the parts can only be demounted from films having low adhesion. That is, when films having a more tacky adhesive are used for mounting the parts, the parts cannot be easily and safely removed using this other process.